WESTLAKE VILLAGE, CA, U.S.A. – Guitar Center and DIRECTV have announced that the 2012 season of their award-winning live performance and interview music television series Guitar Center Sessions will begin airing this May exclusively on DIRECTV. The new season will showcase seven new episodes featuring groundbreaking artists including Alanis Morissette, The All-American Rejects,Colbie Caillat and more.

The season kicks off with legendary guitarist Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators on May 18, at 9pm in 2D hi-definition on DIRECTV’s The Audience Network (channel 239). DIRECTV will also air the series in 3D on DIRECTV’s n3d.

View the trailer here: http://bit.ly/JXHG2v

Guitar Center Sessions features intimate interviews conducted by renowned music journalist Nic Harcourtwhich offer a rare behind the scenes view into the storied careers of music icons and the inspirations behind their music. Each episode also showcases exclusive live performances by the artists captured at Guitar Center’s famous Hollywood, CA location.

“With each episode we aim to present more than just the exceptional live performances given by our guest artists,” says Nic Harcourt. “We provide music fans a glimpse into the creative process behind the music and histories of their idols, revealing their unique stories of successes as well as struggles, offering a realistic inside look at what it takes to succeed as a musician.”

Upcoming Guitar Center Sessions 2012 Episode Schedule:

• May 18th     Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators
• June 1st       The All-American Rejects
• June 15th     Colbie Caillat
• June 29th     Alanis Morissette
• July 13th      Megadeath
• July 27th      Switchfoot
• August 10th  Sublime with Rome

Guitar Center’s musical expertise as the worlds largest retailer of musical instruments and equipment, paired with DIRECTV – the world’s largest pay TV provider – ensures that each episode is delivered in the highest audio and visual quality. This dynamic pairing lead Guitar Center Sessions to receive the International 3D Society’s award for Best Music Television Series in 2010.

“Our goal with Guitar Center Sessions is provide artists, emerging and established, with a highly credible platform to expose their music and riveting back stories to a large audience,” says Dustin Hinz, Director of Music Marketing and Artist Relations for Guitar Center. “By continuing to develop high quality original music programming that focuses on conversations and themes pertinent to the artist’s craft and creative process, Guitar Center continues to further its commitment to helping artists be heard in an ever changing, uncertain music business.”

Since its premiere in August of 2010 with the iconic Peter Gabriel, Guitar Center Sessions has gone on to feature 31 episodes with today’s most compelling artists including, Weezer, Jane’s Addiction, The Cult, CAKE, Jakob Dylan, Blondie, Social Distortion, Seether, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Bush and Peter Frampton.

Image Courtesy of  Guitar Center

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In the annals of rock history, Tommy Bolin occupied a brief, but shining stint as a brilliant guitarist who wowed those in the know with his mastery of many genres—rock, fusion, funk, reggae and heavy metal among others.

Along with a much lauded solo career that pushed the boundaries of rock/jazz fusion, Bolin played with The James Gang and Deep Purple which set him up for major solo guitar stardom which was cut short by his untimely death in 1976.

Not to be overlooked, there’s been much written about the guitar wunderkind and now a top notch roster of players have signed on to pay tribute to Bolin on GREAT GYPSY SOUL.

Produced by Greg Hampton and Warren Haynes, it’s a remarkable project that brings together major players who actually perform alongside Tommy Bolin’s playing and vocals from the recording outtakes to his solo debut album “Teaser.”

Peter Frampton, Warren Haynes, Nels Cline, Steve Lukather, Steve Morse, Brad Whitford, Joe Bonamassa, John Scofield, Derek Trucks, Glenn Hughes and Myles Kennedy all contribute to this amazing project.

Great Gypsy Soul was released on 429 Records on March 26th and immediately became Amazon’s #1 Rock Download for last week! GREAT GYPSY SOUL is both a widely available single CD format and a double CD with 39 minutes of bonus material available only at Amazon.com.

Tommy Bolin was the quintessential guitar prodigy who focused his talents within the burgeoning rock/metal scenes of the early 70′s as well as mastered a highly lauded jazz fusion technique catching the attention of rock tastemakers and guitar legend peers.

It was just a matter of time before Bolin was making a name for himself playing on projects as diverse as Billy Cobham’s “Spectrum” project (considered one of the great jazz fusion recordings of all time), replacing Joe Walsh in the James Gang, playing session work on seminal fusion projects by Moxy and Alphonse Mouzon, to replacing Ritchie Blackmore in Deep Purple.

With the release of his second solo album “Private Eyes”, what should have been a red letter moment for Bolin, opening up for Jeff Beck in Miami, sadly turned tragic as Bolin was found dead of an overdose shortly after the gig.

Image Courtesy of  http://www.tbolin.com

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